Business Insider on the three issues augmented reality has to resolve in order to become the next big thing. No surprises there, but isn’t AR already the next big thing, and it should rather try to become the current big thing?

It seems that I have never posted here about Greg Tran’s work on augmented architecture. Which is a pity. I had the following video opened as a tab in my browser for a long time, just waiting to be published, and somehow I forgot about it. Luckily, Yanko Design posted another video of Tran’s work, which served as a necessary reminder:

This week’s video comes to us via Etsuji Kameyama’s blog. I often complained about not having the AR equivalent of Angry Birds (ARAB). Well, we are not there yet, but Junaio now features a channel with the boids, enabling users to take picture with them. Even though it’s a wholly new media, still nobody likes the boomerang bird.

Brother’s AiRScouter see-through head mounted display is coming out this fall? One thing’s for sure, they Brother stresses the AR use cases of that device.

The future of firefighting may be augmented according to Tanagram. As Toby points out, a firefighter wants 100% reliability which doesn’t go well with computer vision dependence on heuristic algorithms.

Not too happy with the shape of your nose? Researchers at the University of London are working on an AR mirror that will let you tweak it (and other features) in real time.

In the last week Bruce Sterling has postedseveraldemovideos of AR projects done by Art Center College of Design (Pasadena) students. The class, which is sponsored by Layar (very wise move!) and guided by Sterling, resulted with some interesting ideas, from AR religion to Bitcoin treasure hunt, but I liked most Dobu Dobu, an “augmented reality app to create love, companionship and friendship through adoption of virtual pets”.

AR Dodge Ball from TU Munich. Is it a HUD on your face or are you just a weirdo?

This week’s video is without a doubt this one from The Heavy Projects – I never got so many retweets as I did after tweeting about it (if you don’t follow me I’m @augmented). Harnessing the power of Junaio, the billboards of Times Square are repainted with original street art. I think the guys from Artvertiser had this idea first, but it’s pretty neat to see it actually implemented. I just wonder whether it’s ok with Junaio’s terms of use.

Users not waking up to augmented reality mobile apps (via @jack_benott). Here’s an interesting quote: Augmented reality “needs to move away from the “pull” model of using the camera to pull AR data to a “push” model where consumers can receive AR data in a seamless fashion”. This theoretically will happen with the introduction of head up displays, but maybe we can’t wait till then …

The augmented reality pitch that made Justin Timberlake invest in stealth startup Dekko (via @GaryPHayes). I really hope there’s something more to it than this. I do love their chosen company name, though.

I think Layar already did it, but 110 Stories is a Kickstarter project aiming to create an AR (and later physical) memorial the World Trade Center towers.

Daqri’s CEO Brain Mullins gives a keynote talk on San Diego’s ARDevCamp titled “The state of augmented reality“. I may or may not link to it just because I got quoted (but thanks!).

“Inch High Stunt Guy” is not just a game, it also beautifully shows the power of Qualcomm’s AR SDK.

This week’s video comes from Toyota Motor Europe and the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, which re-imagined a car’s window for an excibition, and named it “Window to the World”. The result is very attractive, as is evident by the half a million views this video got in the past last week. You probably have already seen it, but if not, here’s a good place to read more about it.

Oh my, what an interesting week for augmented reality, especially in the business front:

Nokia Beta Labs revealed Live View, a revolutionary mobile augmented reality application. Well, unless you consider Wikitude, Layar, Junaio and many other “AR browsers” that came out in the last three years. Nokia was once a leader in AR research, it’s a sad day to see them show off a product like that.